The Golden Legend Wiki
The Golden Legend is a novel set in Zamana, a fictional city, in contemporary Pakistan. Through the lives of the characters- a Muslim widow, her Christian ex-servant and his daughter, A Kashmiri militant, and the widow of a martyr- the author Nadeem Aslam, shows what life is like in modern day Pakistan. Author- Nadeem Aslam Genre- Domestic Fiction Publication Date- 3 January 2017 'Reviews for The Golden Legend-' https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/books/review/the-golden-legend-by-nadeem-aslam.html https://www.thecommononline.org/review-the-golden-legend/ https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2017/05/29/nadeem-aslam-the-golden-legend/ The Golden Legend- A Summary Nargis, an architect with a dark secret, has lost her husband, Massud, to a rogue American bullet. It hit him as he stepped outside a human chain passing books to a new library that he and Nargis designed. This book had been written by his father and was named "That They Might Know Each Other" ''which detailed how no culture is pure as all cultures interacted with one another at some point. Soon, this leads to her being tangled with the military intelligence agency and the plot of the novels thickens and weaves together just like the repairs of ''That They Might Know Each Other" ''which was damaged to terrify Nargis into compiling with the agency's wishes. Nargis and Masud's'' Christian ex-servant, Lily, and his daughter, Helen, whom Nargis and Massud have nurtured intellectually and whose mother Grace, was murdered by a Muslim, live nearby. Disaster erupts when Lily's affair with Ayesha, the Muslim widow of a militant Islamist martyr, is revealed. A mob burns down their neighbourhood. Both Lily and Helen have to escape as people wanted to kill Lily, and Helen was about to be arrested on accusations of blasphemy. Nargis escapes with Helen, who falls in love with a Kashmiri named Imran, who turns up at Nargis’s house one day after having attempted to help save Masud's life and having escaped from a group of jihadists with whom he trained. Nargis, Helen, and Imran begin a strange but lovely idyll of love and friendship that sharply contrasts with the fears and violence that surrounds them. Hidden, the three lovingly repair Massud’s father book, using golden thread to stitch its pages together again. Each of these characters suffers as a result of bigotry that fueled the violence in their country. Pakistan depicted in this harrowing novel is unbearably wrenched apart by terror and prejudice, but the dignity of Aslam’s characters and their devotion to one another rises far above the violence in the end as realism and fable combine to show patriotism, violence, religious identity, the beauty and pain, and the creation and destruction that one finds in Pakistan. About the author- Nadeem Aslam "I wanted every chapter of Maps for Lost Lovers to be like a Persian miniature. In these miniatures, a small piece of paper – no bigger than a sheet of A4 – holds an immense wealth of beauty, colour and detail. Trees have leaves each perfectly rendered. Flowers are moments old and the tilework of the palaces and mosques is lovingly detailed. That was the aim in Maps..." - Nadeem Aslam on his second novel Maps for Lost Lovers Nadeem Aslam, born in Pakistan in 1966, moved to the United Kingdom as a teenager. His family settled in Huddersfield and he studied biochemistry at the University of Manchester. However, eventually, he left to become a writer, often using his own experiences in his work. His first novel, Season of the Rainbirds (1993), won a Betty Trask Award and the Authors’ Club First Novel Award. In the opening pages of the novel, the author depicts a domestic scene through the collective consciousness of an anonymous group of children in a tiny town in Pakistan. This world has an innocence and simplicity about it which is, quite literally in places, black and white: "Men with black beards are to be avoided, while those with white beards are kind and gentle". Yet what strikes the reader most is the overwhelming attention to detail in these intricate, delicate paragraphs: something that is a speciality of Aslam. Aslam’s second novel, Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), received critical acclaim and one critic in The Observer noted: "This is that rare sort of book that gives a voice to those whose voices are seldom heard." In Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), he depicts "a time in England when the white attitude towards dark-skinned foreigners was just beginning to go from I don’t want to see them or work next to them to I don’t mind working next to them if I’m forced to, as long as I don’t have to speak to them, an attitude that would change in another ten years to I don’t mind them socializing in the same place as me if they must, as long as I don’t have to live next to them." This level of intricacy and nuance took eleven years to perfect and Dr James Procter observed that "in a period when so many contemporary writers are associated with the cult of celebrity, with instantaneous success and with hasty, not to mention hefty, advances, Aslam seems content with the longer view, and with quality rather than quantity." Now Nadeem Aslam lives in London. His third novel The Wasted Vigil was published in 2008, its title derived from a painting with the same title by a Pakistani artist, followed by a fourth book, The Blind Man's Garden, in 2013. He published Golden Legend in 2017. Major Characters in The Golden Legend Massud- A dead architect. Nargis - A widow with a dark secret. Lily- A Christian rickshaw driver who falls in love with a Muslim widow. Helen- A Christian journalist who was accused of blasphemy. Ayesha- The widow of a militant, who isn't allowed to remarry as she is a martyr's widow. Imran- A Kashmiri who escaped the jihadist camp he went to train in. Minor Characters in The Golden Legend 'Grace-' She was Lily's wife and Helen's mother. She had been murdered before the start of the novel. However, since the murderer was Muslim he got a much shorter sentence and was released from prison as he had learnt the whole of the Koran. 'Bishop Soloman-' He was Margaret's uncle and the first Pakistani-born Bishop in Pakistan, in The Golden Legend. He was a great source of pride for the country's Christians. He had to kill himself near the end of the novel, possibly on the orders of the Military-Intelligence Agency, so that Nargis could be forced into the open and be persuaded ''or threatened into forgiving the American shooter who killed Massud. '''The Cleric at the Mosque-' The Cleric is Ayesha's father. While a religious man who had some power in Zamana die to the virtue of his position, at the end of the cleric was helpless when the militant friends and brother of his daughter's late husband forced their way into his home and began to rule his daughter's life. He could not help Ayesha get married. He was a tolerant person as he treated Christian and Muslim children the same. 'Shakeel-' He was Ayesha's brother-in-law who was a part of a militant group. A harsh and unforgiving man, he did not Ayesha re-marry and was extremely harsh to Billu and her after he learnt of her affair with Lily. 'Farid-' He was the owner of the Museum of Glass Flowers ''who gave Lily shelter and food while he was on the run. He believed "despair had to be earned" and that was how he described Pakistan. He became a part of Nargis and Ayesha's lives after Ayesha went to the museum to meet Lily, not knowing he was dead. '''Seraphina-' She was Margaret's elder sister who was attacked due to her being a Christian. She committed suicide by drowning herself in a pond near her house after she learnt that her sister was pretending to be a Muslim and would continue that ruse for the rest of her life. 'The American Shooter-' The American shooter was an American diplomat and spy, whose stray bullet hit Massud. Nargis was intimidated by the military-agency to forgive this man in exchange for blood-money under Sharia law. 'The General-' He was a member of the military-agency. He intimidated Nargis into forgiving the American man. He hit her, ripped her book to shreds, and finally got Bishop Soloman to kill himself to force Nargis out of hiding, promising in the end to help Imran; Helen; and Lily in exchange for Nargis' co-operation. He had great respect for certain members of the CIA. Themes https://the-golden-legend.fandom.com/wiki/Themes_within_The_Golden_Legend?rcid=78 Hear The Characters Speak https://the-golden-legend.fandom.com/wiki/Blog:Recent_posts Creators Home Page- Anjali Roongta Page on Nargis- Anjali Roongta Page on Massud- Anjali Roongta Page on Lily- Anjali Roongta Page on Imran- Anjali Roongta Page on Helen- Anjali Roongta Page on the themes in ''The Golden Legend- ''Lisa Schwind Blog Post on Nargis and Representations of Art - Emily Gorski Blog post on Nargis and Literature- Carlee Post Blog Post on Identity (Nargis and Helen)- Anjali Roongta Bibliography and Videos provided - Ambica Mitra Nadeem Aslam Video- Bridget Bibliography https://the-golden-legend.fandom.com/wiki/Bibliography Contact Details Contact at- roongtaanjali@gmail.comCategory:Browse Category:Pakistani Literature Category:World Literature